Before I bought my SF I read all the reviews and the handling was generally praised. Only 2 reviewers (both brits) commented on the vagueness of the SF frontend relative to the precision of the Panigale. Everyone else all good. So I made a trip to poseur central (LA) and bought the bike.
When I started using it as intended I found that it pushed at turn-in and ran wide off the corners. Intuitively I started raising the rear and raising the forks in the triples. In the end I had the rear up 14 mm (which is about all there is) and had the fork showing 4 lines above the upper triple. So front to rear the overall rake was probably lessened a degree and this made the bike tolerable but with the same wheels as my 1198S it felt about 100 lbs heavier when flipping the bike side to side. The 1198 is probably 40 lbs lighter in reality. When I posted what I had done to make it tolerable one of the forums esteemed members commented that my set-up resembled a clowncar.
Fast forward to November and I pull the bike apart to time the cams and shim the valvetrain. This requires the front frame to be removed and as it was being disassembled I saw the 26.5 + 2mm stamped on the SF head inserts. The offset was measured and indeed the there was a 2 degree offset (outwards) relative to the front frame.
The front frame sans inserts is 24 degrees so the Pani inserts add a half degree to get the 24.5 head angle. The Pani specs are 24.5 and 100 mm trail. If you consider that each degree of rake is accompanied by about 4 mm of trail then 26.5 inserts in the SF gives (well 26.5 degrees rake) and about 108 mm of trail. Totally explains the behavior before I started fussing with the geometry.
The take away from this is Ducati is lying about the SF geometry.
The bike was reassembled (Pani inserts) with the rear returned to stock height and the fork showing 2 lines but a break in the weather to actually ride it. Which happened midweek. And low and behold the bike feels 50-60 lbs lighter and no push at turn in or running wide off the corners.
